Report rejects Timor murders claim

By Mark ForbesForeign Affairs CorrespondentCanberraJune 4 2002

A Federal Government inquiry has rejected persistent claims that the 1975 murders of five Australian journalists at Balibo in East Timor could have been avoided if action had been taken on intelligence information.

However, Defence Minister Robert Hill has refused for security reasons to release the full report of the inquiry by the InspectorGeneral of Intelligence and Security, Bill Blick.

Mr Blick found that intelligence material relating to journalists in East Timor existed prior to the deaths of the five at the hands of invading Indonesian soldiers. But he dismissed claims by a former Defence Signals Directorate official that key information, which could have prevented the deaths, was suppressed and that documents were removed from official files. The claims were unsupported by witnesses or other documentation, he found.

Following a relocation of the DSD in 1994, a large number of DSD documents relating to East Timor were mistakenly destroyed, he said. He found that all relevant material was passed to the government at the time.

Mr Blick also investigated allegations in a recent book, Death in Balibo, Lies in Canberra, that detailed an alleged intercepted conversation between Indonesian military officers warning there must be no witnesses to their illegal activities in East Timor. ");document.write("

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There was evidence of a report received by Australian intelligence about the journalists' deaths, but it appeared to have been sent shortly after the murders, the report states.

Intelligence reports noting the presence of journalists in East Timor had been circulated before the killings on October 16, 1975, but Mr Blick found they did not indicate that the journalists might come to harm.

"The allegation common to informants from within the intelligence community and Death in Balibo, Lies in Canberra was that DSD had intelligence before October 16 that, if passed to the government, could have alerted it to the possibility of harm to the newsmen," he said.

"The inquiry concluded that intelligence material meeting this description did not exist."

Greg Shackleton, Tony Stewart, Brian Peters, Malcolm Rennie and Gary Cunningham were killed in Balibo when Indonesia led a group of disguised soldiers into East Timor.